Daily Archives: April 18, 2012

We chatted with IceHogs winger Jeremy Morin this past Saturday, shortly before Rockford concluded its 2011-12 season with a 4-3 shootout loss to the Charlotte Checkers.

After being sidelined for ten months with a head injury suffered on January 15, 2011 in a game against the Chicago Wolves in Rosemont, Morin returned in October to score goals in back-to-back games and on his only two shots of that weekend. But the goals were difficult to come by for Morin over the following three months.

Morin wrapped his AHL season with 18 goals and 40 points in 69 games with the IceHogs.

[Update: 12:00pm 04/18/12] The NHL has announced Raffi Torres has been suspended indefinitely pending an in-person hearing in New York on Friday. Torres could waive his right to an in-person hearing and conduct his hearing via teleconference today but chose instead to meet with Brendan Shanahan face-to-face on Friday. In-person hearings are typically only offered to players when the discipline is going to be in excess of three or more games.

As you can see, Hossa put himself in a bad spot in stopping and cutting back into the path of the hard Phoenix backcheck, last supplied by Torres. However, Torres leaves his feet and makes direct contact to Hossa’s chin to which there is no excuse for. Had Torres not jumped into the collision, there would have been nothing wrong with the play.

According to various reports, Hossa left Northwestern Memorial Hospital last night under his own power before the conclusion of the Blackhawks-Coyotes game with what was rumored to be a fractured jaw and is now resting at home.

Considering the severity of injury to Hossa, the probability that Hossa will miss some games and that Torres has been suspended twice in the past thirteen months, you would expect Torres will get whacked by the NHL’s czar of discipline, Brendan Shanahan.

Four months ago, Torres was suspended two games for leaving his feet to check Minnesota’s Nate Prosser in a game on December 31. Last night’s check on Hossa came a year to the day Torres, then a member of the Vancouver Canucks, knocked Brent Seabrook silly with an ugly hit in Game 3 of last year’s conference quarter finals at the United Center. Torres was not suspended for that play even though it was his first game back from a four game suspension incurred during a late regular season game when he took a run at Edmonton’s Jordan Eberle.

Torres is expected to have a disciplinary hearing with Shanahan as soon as this afternoon. Game 4 is tomorrow night (Thursday) at United Center.

Another tightly contested game between Phoenix and Chicago saw the visiting Coyotes take the series advantage. The visiting Coyotes escaped with a 3-2 overtime win on Tuesday night. Mikkel Boedker was the ovetime hero for Phoenix on a sharp-angle goal at the 13:15 mark of the extra session.

The first period was marred by a late hit from Raffi Torres on Marian Hossa right in front of the ‘Hawks bench. Early signs were not good, as Hossa dropped to the ice, slamming the back of his head, and Blackhawks medical staff jumped over the boards before the puck was even blown dead. Little time was wasted before the stretcher was brought out and Hossa wheeled to an ambulance, at which point he was communicating but had still not yet regained movement. Fortunately, he was able to return home, under further monitoring, with what is being called a broken jaw. Read more »